Thaxton: We need to look at the fire department

Polk County Commissioner Marshelle Thaxton had a clear message for his fellow board members during their September session: Do something about the fire department soon, or everyone will pay for it later.

Thaxton recalled how a situation was handled on an August afternoon when he and his wife returned home from lunch to find a neighbor’s house on fire.

He praised the work of Rockmart firefighters and the few Polk County Fire Department volunteers – including Public Safety Director Randy Lacey and his assistant Kattie Trammell – who put out the blaze.

“This was a house I own next door to me, and if I wouldn’t have come home at noon for lunch, I wouldn’t have known it was on fire at all,” he said.

But he was sorry to see so few Polk County firefighters at the scene. He also noted the poor response times and lack of responding firefighters when a truck overturned on Yorkville Mountain Road several weeks ago. At that time, Thaxton said, only one Polk County fire truck responded.

His point: “We’ve got to look at the fire department.”

Thaxton voted Sept. 1, 2015, against a motion from the Public Safety committee to set aside money for the county firefighters to use a new web-based fire reporting system required by the state. Thaxton noted that rural fire stations in the county did not have the laptops or the appropriate Internet connections to use the system.

Lacey asked for the funds through the public safety committee, and the board approved the expenditures despite Thaxton’s no vote.

Later in the meeting, Thaxton said his no vote wasn’t personal, but that it was meant simply as a protest.

He requested in his lengthy comments that Denton look into what could be done again to find part-time firefighters, despite last year’s narrow vote against implementing a paid fire department.

But that’s exactly what Lacey says he needs in order to maintain a proper firefighting presence in the unincorporated parts of the county.

Lacey said there’s currently more than 100 volunteers signed up as part of the Polk County Fire Department, but only about a dozen of those on average will show up to a fire and then only between 6 p.m. and midnight on most days.

In the rest of the 18 hours of the day, less than half a dozen will report to fight a blaze on average, Lacey said.

With those lackluster numbers of reporting firefighters and the need for agreements with Rockmart and Cedartown Fire Departments, Lacey is concerned how the problems will affect the ISO rating in the coming months. The next inspection is later this month when the inspector will look at fire stations, hydrants and more.

“We’ve done a number of things administratively to help us, but we’re likely going to see a change,” he said.

Part of the problem is that the requirements for volunteer firefighters have begun to mimic those of professionals, meaning volunteers have to spend more time in training than ever before.

Lacey said the other problem, as he sees it, is that his volunteer force is growing older and can’t do as much as they once did.

Should more volunteer firefighters join the department and actively participate, the problem might get better, Lacey said.

Until then, the department will likely continue to have problems, Lacey said. He added that an increase in the ISO rating for the department also means an increase in the cost of homeowner’s insurance for local taxpayers.

Should the option come back onto the ballot, voters in the unincorporated parts of Polk County would be able to approve a plan that would phase in paid firefighters over a 10year period and reduce the number of stations from nine to six.